Think outside that box!

I think ever since I retired, I have been trying to get others to think outside the box.  But then, that's not really true.  I have been doing that all my life!  I remember the book "A Whack on the Side of the Head" was one of my favorite management books.  My favorite business quote was, "Every rule here can be broken except this one!"

These days, I'm just trying to get other artists to see things in a different light.  For instance, I came across this wadded up, rumpled bouquet of flowers at a garage sale for a dime.  What caught my eye is that these are the old, paper-wrapped flowers.  You can tell that because the wire stems are wrapped with soft paper, not that green florist's tape.  But these did look pretty sad.

One of the essentials of succeeding in the business world is the ability to multi-task and I do that in the art world.  While chatting on the phone with friends, I got my little clover craft iron out and individually pressed every single petal.  I even timed myself.  It took 2 minutes to press a single flower and this little bouquet had a ton of flowers!  But it was well worth the effort as the final results are just amazing!

Would you have "seen" this final bouquet when you first looked at the mess at the garage sale for a dime?  Obviously there were others who passed by it before I got there!  It has become the perfect embellishment for this little arrangement on my shelf.  The Ginny doll was naked and her arms were off when I found her.  Her hair has been reset and the dress was cleaned.  "New" shoes from an ebay auction and she is as good as new!

The hanky was once just a white hanky that I stamped, inked and glittered.  Those are old perfume boxes that I altered and have blogged in the past.  The tiny baby ballet shoes were a more recent find at a thrift store.  But the bouquet...for a dime...is the finishing touch that this little collection needed!

Vintage paper flowers are one of my favorite things and to find this bouquet for a dime just made my day.  But I have to wonder how many others would have tossed it into the trash?  I'm so grateful that there are some who are willing to put things into their garage sales just on the chance that one person's trash is another person's treasure!!!